


Old Tales New Beginnings

by vintagemisery49



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, Flashbacks, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon, Reminiscing, Stargazing, except for most of the flashbacks, some slight mention of blood and stuff but nothing super descriptive or gross, the whole gang is mentioned but they're not really in it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-24 18:40:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14361324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vintagemisery49/pseuds/vintagemisery49
Summary: It's been a few months since the defeat of the Galra empire and Lance and Keith are back on Earth. One night Lance takes Keith out on a date to go stargazing and they end up reminiscing on everything they've been through.





	Old Tales New Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> This is my piece for the Klance Reverse Bang, I made this fic for some lovely art by keuwibird on tumblr so go check it out!

They had only been back on Earth for a little over a month when it had hit Lance that he and Keith hadn’t been on a single date since their return. It was kind of understandable; they had just saved the universe from the threat of the Galra Empire, and after returning to Earth for the first time in five years he had needed to catch up on some much needed family time. Not to mention they had to deal with all the diplomatic duties that came along with being a paladin of Voltron, you couldn’t just show up with an alien spaceship and not give the world some kind of the explanation. When the two of them hadn’t been at Lance’s house or dealing with Earth diplomacy they had been with the rest of the team trying to figure out what was going to happen next.

It didn’t help either that after spending every waking moment on their toes ready for an attack it made it harder for them to even feel relaxed. One time the two of them had been hanging out with his family, not too long after they had gotten back, and one of Lance’s nieces has knocked over a vase. At the loud noise and cry Lance had been reaching for his bayard that wasn’t there and Keith had jumped up from his seat ready to move. They really just needed some time to themselves to unwind a bit, to just sit back and try to forget for just a few seconds that they had been a part of an intergalactic war.

So Lance decided to drag Keith out one night to go stargaze on the hill on the edge of town, he used to go there all the time with his siblings when he was younger. It just felt right that they went to such an important place to Lance on their “first official Earth date.”

“Here we go,” Lance said as he spread out the blanket. “Get ready to be wooed babe.”

“I don’t know Lance,” Keith said as he watched Lance flop down onto the blanket, patting the spot next to him while looking up at Keith. “I think I would’ve been just fine if we had stayed at your house and kept watching Netflix.”

“Keith one can only watch so many episodes of Forensic Files,” Lance said as he patted the spot next to him again. “Come on, this is supposed to be us relaxing, just out here in open, out with nature and all that stuff you like.”

“I recall that you were the one that wouldn’t stop talking about how pretty the view is from up here as we drove over,” Keith said as he gave in and sat next to Lance.

Lance threw his arm loosely around Keith’s shoulder. “Come on, just look at this view, you can practically see the entire town from up here,” Lance said as he gestured at the town below with his free arm.

“Hmmm I don’t know,” Keith said as he glanced over at Lance, a sly smile on his face. “I think I like the view right next to me much better.”

“Baaaaaabe,” Lance said as his face heated up. “Who said you could be this smooth?”

“I learned from the best,” Keith said as he rested his head on Lance’s shoulder. “So like, what are we doing exactly? Aren’t you supposed to be showing me some stars or something?”

“Oh my god Keith, dude, I’m getting there,” Lance sad. “Can’t a guy appreciate sitting next to his boyfriend for five seconds?”

“Well yeah, but the boyfriend would also like to see his boyfriend show off his apparently crazy star knowledge, plus I think you should be able to do both at the same time,” Keith said as he snuggled closer to Lance, dang that boy knew what buttons to push to get what he wanted, though it’s not like Lance didn’t know how to get his way as well.

“Fine,” Lance said before glancing over at Keith, a mischievous grin on his face, “But not before I get a kiss!” Lance leaned down and pressed little kisses to the side of Keith’s face as the other boy giggled.

“You’re a big sap,” Keith said as Lance pressed one last kiss to Keith’s temple.

“You love it,” Lance said, smiling softly down at Keith.

“Hmmm, yeah I do,” Keith said with a smile before settling back into Lance’s arms. “So tell me about these stars.”

Lance chuckled. “You’re really excited about these stars, but anyway-“ Lance pointed up at the one constellation he had noticed that wasn’t the Big Dipper, “-That’s the constellation Pegasus.”

“Like from Hercules?” Keith asked.

“Heh, kinda,” Lance said with a half shrug. “The story behind the constellation isn’t the same as Hercules though.”

Keith hummed, silently asking Lance to elaborate. 

“Pretty much Pegasus helped out this one Greek hero defeat this monster, but then that hero tried to fly up Mount Olympus to live with the gods, and Zeus sent down a bug to sting Pegasus who bucked the guy off. After that Pegasus helped out some more and Zeus decided to put him in the stars,” Lance said, he was a little rusty when it came to his constellation lore after so many years of just not thinking about the stars since he was surrounded by them, but he managed to remember the basics it seemed.

“I keep imagining Zeus seeing this guy trying to come up into his house and is like yeah I should send down a mosquito or something to sting the horse, it’ll totally work,” Keith said. “Like he couldn’t just send down a lightning bolt to smite the guy but no, he sent down a bug to do his work.”

“Maybe he wanted to be low-key about it,” Lance said and about burst out laughing at the face Keith made when he said that.

“Zeus is never low-key about anything.”

“I mean yeah, he did give Pegasus a whole constellation.”

“If all you need to do to get a constellation is carry a guy around we definitely deserve our own constellation,” Keith said.

“Wow Keith, don’t start getting a big head just cause you helped save the universe,” Lance said with a chuckle as Keith pushed with his elbow.

“Oh be quiet Mister I Wanted a Whole Statue.”

“Hey, that was young Lance, this Lance just wants a vacation day,” Lance said, placing one hand over his heart like he we was hurt by Keith’s words.

Keith laughed at that. “Yeah, but I wouldn’t want to actually have a constellation-“

“Of course-“

"Shut it for a second,” Keith said placing his hand over Lance’s mouth, and Lance only considered licking Keith’s hand for a second, “We’ve been up in the stars for so long, I don’t like the idea of being stuck up there forever.’

Keith took his hand away from Lance’s mouth and Lance was speechless for a second. “Huh, to think all of this started because we wanted to be closer to the stars,” Lance mused, his Garrison days flashing through his mind. “Remember when we first met?”

“Lance we’ve talked about this before,” Keith mumbled, he always got grumpy whenever Lance brought up how they met because according to Keith, while he had seen Lance in passing at the Garrison they didn’t truly meet until the whole Shiro incident.

“I remember as if it was yesterday,” Lance said, a bit over dramatically, throwing out an arm and clutching at the air. “It will be forever burned in my brain!”

“Oh my gods,” Keith groaned as Lance went into his dramatic version of when he saw Keith for the first time.

/////

Lance had been talking to Hunk about the test they had next period when he had saw him, the top pilot of their year. It took him a second to remember his name, Keith he thinks (that was a lie he knew it off the top of his head because of how it always sat on the top of the test results mocking Lance.)

“Look at him over there, walking around so smugly like the smug little smug guy he is,” Lance complained, though he couldn’t help but notice how nice Keith’s hair looked, despite the out of date hair style.

“Dude, I think you said smug way to many times,” Hunk said, placing a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “Besides I don’t think Keith really cares about how whether he’s number one in the class or not, the only thing he ever really shows up for are simulation days.”

“Yeah but he always gets the best score without even trying!” Lance complained, crossing his arms as he watched Keith cross the room to his desk, smugly.

“Lance, bud, I’m sure he practices just like the rest of us, there’s no way he’s just naturally that talented,” Hunk said, trying to reassure Lance and maybe convince his best friend to try and study a bit more rather than saying he’ll do it the next day and suddenly it’s the day of the test and Lance hasn’t so much as looked at his notes. “Besides, he’s only first when it comes to simulation scores, I don’t think he’s ever gotten the best written exam score.”

“You know what,” Lance said, a great idea suddenly crossing his mind, “I’m going to go say something to him.”

“Lance no, that’s a bad idea,” Hunk said as Lance stood up and ignored him.

Lance walked up to Keith and placed his hand on the other boy’s desk, ready to give him a piece of his mind when Keith looked up at him and Lance felt all the air being sucked out of him.

“Um, hi, do you, uh, need something?” Keith asked, staring up at Lance, confusion written all over his face.

“Oh, uh, hi,” Lance managed to wheeze out, feeling his palms getting sweaty. What the heck was going on? So what if Keith had pretty eyes and a nice face, Lance had something to say. “I just uh, wanted to say that uh-“ Lance said, fumbling over the right words to say before blurting something out, “That tailspin you did last week was cool, okay bye.”

Lance turned tail and headed back to his desk stiff as a board, refusing to look back at Keith for fear of what he would see. Lance collapsed into his chair and let his head fall to the desk with a groan.

“I told you so,” Hunk said, patting him on the head because even back then Hunk had been able to realize Lance’s crush on Keith before he did.

//////

“I’ve apologized, like, five times for that,” Keith said with a groan. “I was so out of it back in the Garrison that I don’t even remember anything. The only thing I remember is when I busted into Iverson’s office and yelled at him until he threatened to call the police, and then decided the best thing to do was punch him in the face.”

“Hmm yes, but that was the first time we ever spoke,” Lance said as Keith let out a sigh. “What are you going to tell to our grandchildren when they ask us about how we met for the first time, what our first words to each other were?”

“I’ll just tell them the better story,” Keith said with a smirk.

/////

Keith could feel the adrenaline running through his veins as he managed to get Shiro off the table. He felt as if every part of his body was moving impossibly fast as he tried to comprehend that this was actually Shiro in the flesh and he wasn’t still lost in space somewhere.

He was trying to get Shiro to lean against him so he could carry him out when saw three figures appear in the doorway. 

He was reaching for his knife when one of them starting to head right towards him, only pausing when he realized that it was some guy around the same age as him.

“No, no, nope, you’re not saving Shiro, I am,” the boy said as he pushed the table out of the way and put Shiro’s other arm across his shoulders. At least now Keith had some help at least, but there was still one thing he had to ask.

“Who are you?” Keith asked, he felt like he might have seen the other boy before but couldn’t pinpoint where.

“Uh, the name’s Lance, we we’re in the same class at the Garrison,” the boy, Lance, said, and oh wait Keith recognized him now.

“Oh yeah, you were a cargo pilot,” Keith said before cringing slightly, that was probably not the best thing to say but now was not the time to mull over his little social skills. Lance made some kind of noise but Keith ignored him, he needed to get Shiro out of here before anyone came in. He’d have to apologize later.

/////

“Yeah you sure did take your time to apologize for that,” Lance joked as Keith rolled his eyes.

“We’ve been over this before,” Keith mumbled. “I was way too hot headed back than to apologize to some guy that seemed to hate me.”

“I wish we had a more romantic first meeting,” Lance said with sigh.

“What are you talking about?” Keith asked, his mouth quirking up in a smile.

“Like what if our eyes had met across a crowded room and it felt like my entire body had been shocked and our bodies just seemed to take us towards each other as if fate was pushing us together,” Lance said, seemingly ignoring that Keith had burst out laughing after the first few words.

“Lance oh my god,” Keith chucked, covering his mouth as he tried to calm his laughter. “I don’t think in any universe we’d ever meet like that.”

“What, you don’t think we could ever have a super romantic meeting?” Lance asked. “I’m shocked you don’t think we’re soulmates dude.”

“No, no, not that, I just can’t see us meeting in one of those textbook romances, like we’d be spilled boiling hot coffee onto a random stranger and gave them second degree burns or something like that,” Keith said with a chuckle before resting his head against Lance’s shoulder. “But I like to think that we’d still manage to fall in love.”

“Awww babe,” Lance said pressing a kiss to the top of Keith’s head. “I love you too.”

“You doof,” Keith said as he scrunched himself down further into Lance’s arms. “Aren’t you supposed to be wooing me with constellation knowledge?”

“Hmmm yeah, but I’m enjoying listening to you talk about how we’re soulmates a lot more,” Lance said, rubbing Keith’s arm with his thumb. “I prefer listening to you talk.”

“Funny, I prefer listening to you talk,” Keith said. “It seems like we’re at a draw.”

“Maybe we should use this time for a bonding moment rather than stargazing,” Lance joked, loving the face Keith made whenever he said those two words, “bonding moment.”

“Oh shut up Lance, this is coming from the guy who denied our first bonding moment for a good two years,” Keith grumbled.

“Maybe you should tell me about it again so I can refresh my memory,” Lance said, a sly smile crossing his face because he knew he was going to get what he wanted.

“Fine,” Keith said with a small huff, thought Lance knew he loved telling this story over and over again.

/////

Sendek had just fallen to the ground as Keith was scrambling over to where Lance lay, slumped up against the wall, his bayard on the floor between his legs. Keith could feel his heart pounding in his ears as he skidded to a halt next to Lance and offered his hand out to him.

When Lance actually took his hand Keith felt like his heart had stopped dead in his chest. Lance showed no signs of trying to get up so Keith knelt down next to him, his hand still grasping Lance’s

“We did it,” Lance said softly as he turned to Keith, a soft smile on his face that for some reason made Keith’s stomach do flips, “We are a good team.”

Keith’s heart promptly stopped in his chest at those words as he felt a smile break across his face as he felt warmth flood his chest, maybe he could get used to this whole friendship thing.

/////

“And then you went and broke my heart the very next day,” Kith finished as usual, while Lance let out his usual groan.

“Oh my god babe, when will you ever drop that?” Lance groaned as he laid his head on top of Keith’s.

“Probably around the same time you stop making fun of me for how I tried to confess to you for the first time,” Keith pointed out, and well touché.

“Keith, you walked up to me looking like a tomato and screamed “I’m gay” at me before storming off, there was nothing I could do in that situation,” Lance said as he felt Keith huff from besides him

“I tried,” Keith muttered.

“Besides, you can’t forget our second bonding moment,” Lance teased, wondering if Keith would even know what he was talking about.

“What are you talking about?”

Oh boy this was going to be good.

/////

Lance had known something bad was going to happen when Keith had stopped the elevator door from closing and stepped into the elevator along with Lance, mentioning something about a pool. Lance had already been dealing with the ball of confusing feelings he had for Keith all while trying to save the universe, he just wanted one peaceful swim around the pool. But no, Keith had to go and ruin that for him!

He didn’t think it could get any worse, until the lights in the elevator flickered off and plunged the two into darkness. Okay, it was now officially worse.

“What the-“ Keith sputtered from besides him as Lance felt his own heart stutter, now was not the time feelings.

“Do you think we’re stuck in here?” Lance asked, feeling like he was talking to the air considering how pitch black it was.

He heard movement and what sounded like Keith trying to open the doors based on the grunts he was making.

“Yeah I’d say we’re pretty stuck,” Keith huffed as Lance’s eyes finally began to adjust to the darkness, he could now make out Keith’s figure and some shapes but not much else.

“There has to be some way out of here,” Lance muttered as he ran his hand over the wall, trying to think if he had noticed anything, like a grate or something that they could crawl out of. His mind suddenly flashed to the hatch that he had noticed out of the corner of his eye when he had first gotten into the elevator.

Making his way over to the corner of the elevator, he reached up above as high as he could until his fingers brushed up against a handle.

“Jackpot,” he mumbled before saying a little louder, “Keith, I think I found our way out.”

“Seriously?” he heard Keith ask as he turned the handle and pushed open the hatch.

“Yeah I’m pretty sure,” Lance said as a square of light shone into the elevator. “Now let’s get out of here.”

Lance managed to find a way to climb out, with a little help from Keith who had shoved his legs up for him, and let his eyes readjust to the light before offering a hand down to Keith who much to Lance’s surprise actually took it.

After pulling Keith out, Lance actually take a good look around and realized how screwed they were. They were stuck in the shaft and there seemed to be no door or any kind of opening they could get through to escape.

“I think we’re still screwed,” Keith muttered from besides him as Lance looked up the shaft, maybe there was grate or something just a little ways up.

As he tried to figure out a way for them to climb up the shaft the best idea he had ever had popped into his mind.

“Hey Keith,” Lance said as he felt a wide smile stretch across his face, “Have you ever seen the movie The Emperor’s New Groove?”

/////

“Oh my gods I have to stop you there,” Keith said with a groan as Lance burst out laughing.

“I-I still can’t believe that you went along with it!” Lance wheezed as he wiped a tear from his eye. “I thought you would’ve just looked at me like I had two heads and then try to climb up by yourself with your knife or something.”

“You can pretend to forget out first bonding moment but you can’t do it for the elevator thing?”

“Hmmm, no,” Lance said with a smirk. “I like to remember every moment I spend with you.”

“Laaance,” Keith groaned as he hid his face into Lance’s neck so the boy in question wouldn’t see his face turn bright red, but oh, Lance knew all right.

“Awww babe,” Lance said as he nudged Keith’s side, “Am I embarrassing you?”

Keith just groaned in response before moving his face out of Lance’s neck. “Aren’t you supposed to be up here showing me the stars?”

“Hmm, yeah, but I think I’m enjoying this whole walk down memory lane more,” Lance said. “But I guess I can show you another star.”

“And a story please,” Keith said from besides him.

“Yeah okay and the story too,” Lance said with a chuckle before pointing to a group of stars near Pegasus. “So that group of stars up there is Andromeda.”

Keith hummed in response as Lance drew out the constellation with his finger. “She was the daughter of a boastful queen. One day the queen went too far and said she was more beautiful than the queen of the gods and the nymphs. So Neptune sent this sea monster, since technically she insulted the nymphs who were Neptune’s subjects or something like that, to destroy the kingdom.”

“Hmm seems kinda harsh,” Keith said, his breath tickling Lance’s neck.

“Heh, everything that happened back than was kinda harsh,” Lance said. “But anyway the king and queen go to an oracle who tells them that they need to sacrifice their daughter, Andromeda, to the monster to appease the gods or whatever.”

“Why is it always the kids that have to die? Why not the parents? Why not the queen who caused the whole thing?” Keith asked as he grabbed Lance’s hand.

“I don’t know, something to do with virgins or some mess,” Lance said as Keith began to trace on his hand. “Anyway, she was chained to this rock in the ocean to be eaten by the monster and then by some miracle this hero named Perseus flew by and was taken back by Andromeda’s beauty. He eventually got her to tell him why she was chained to the rock and then the monster burst out from the water to eat her or whatever and Perseus got Andromeda’s parents to agree to give him her hand in marriage if he killed the monster.”

“What the heck,” Keith muttered as he glared down at Lance’s hand. “Why wouldn’t he just save her anyway if she needed help?”

“Ehhh, you know how heroes can get,” Lance joked. 

“But they agreed to his request and he killed the monster. So he and Andromeda got married and she was put up in the stars,” Lance finished.

“For being chained to a rock and nearly eaten because of her mother?”

“I mean, maybe Neptune was apologizing for almost getting her killed because of her mom, I don’t know,” Lance said with a shrug. 

“Okay, so I told you about a constellation now you need to tell me a story,” Lance said as he found a way to bend so that he was now spread across Keith’s lap.

“A story? What kind of story?” Keith asked as shifted himself so that he was more comfortable with Lance and his pointy body laying on his lap. 

“A memory or something,” Lance said as he stared up at Keith with the dopey grin that made Keith’s heart melt. “Something that’s important to you, a bonding moment per say.”

“Ha, ha,” Keith said. “I’m not going to tell you the bonding moment story again.”

“Then tell me a different one, tell me when you realized you were in love with me?” Lance asked, fluttering his eyelashes half expecting Keith to scoff at him and just tell him about when Hunk finally figured out how to create real food on the ship.

“How about…when I realized I had a crush on you,” Keith said as he began to run his fingers through Lance’s hair.

“Seriously?” Lance asked.

“Yeah, I mean, you were there when I realized I was in love with you since I told you literally seconds after I figured it out,” Keith said with a shrug. “But I’ve never told you the exact thing that made me realize…my feelings for you.”

“Don’t say it like that.”

“Like what.”

“Like it pains you.”

“I felt crush was too childish but feelings sound just as ridiculous,” Keith said with groan. “Now be quiet, I’m trying to bond with you.”

/////

The metal wall was cold against his back as he slid down it to the ground with a soft thump. He was just so tired and his entire body felt numb and he felt like he couldn’t even breathe anymore and Shiro was gone and he felt like his world was crumbling around him all over again and Shiro was gone and the words Shiro had said, “I want you to be the black paladin,” were ringing through his head and Shiro was gone and his hands were shaking and Shiro was gone and Shiro had disappeared and Shiro-

Keith’s spiraling thoughts came to a halt as he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. His eyes widened at the contact and he almost drew in on himself at the touch, but he had nowhere to hide. He looked up at the owner of said hand, half expecting it to be Hunk since he seemed like the kind of person who would go after their teammate after they had run out of the room in a panic; however he was proved wrong as he looked up into the blue eyes of Lance.

“Hey man,” Lance said, he was crouching down in front of Keith and his eyes seemed far too kind for someone that he had been calling a rival only three weeks ago. “I was going to ask you if you’re alright, but uh, I don’t think any of us are right now.” 

Keith just looked up at him, only somewhat understanding what Lance was saying, but he nodded anyway. Shiro was always getting on him for just staring at people when he didn’t know how to respond to them…oh man he was going to start crying.

“Anyway,” Lance said as he sat down on the floor in front of Keith, he kept his hand on Keith’s shoulder though, “I just wanted to come and check up on you, since well, you and Shiro were so close.”

“Yeah,” Keith managed to get out before looking down at the space between them on the ground. Lance was sitting so close that their knees were almost bumping.

“Listen Keith, I swear we’re going to find him,” Lance said as he tightened his grip on Keith’s shoulder. “We’ll bring him home, just like we did before.”

Keith’s heart ached at those words and reminded him once again that this wasn’t the first time that Shiro had disappeared, would they be able to bring him home again? Keith could feel the tears pricking in the corners of his eyes.

“Hey um, do you maybe want a hug?”

“What?” Keith asked, jerking his head up to look at Lance who was now avoiding his eyes and rubbing the back of his neck.

“Listen it’s not like you have to agree but I know that when I’m sad I like being hugged so I just thought I would offer-“

“Okay,” Keith said, cutting Lance off before Keith could think it over any longer and decide that it was a bad idea.

“Oh, okay,” Lance said before he took his hand off of Keith’s shoulder, wrapping his arm around him and pulling him into a hug. It was…odd to say the least, they were both still half in their armor and just that morning they had been arguing over whether or not Lance had stolen some of Keith’s goo and now this.

Keith slowly raised his arms up and wrapped them around Lance and the second Lance’s hold on him tightened Keith started to cry for the first time in what felt like forever in Lance’s arms.

Lance didn’t say a thing about how Keith was getting his tears and snot on his flight suit, he just kept patting him on the back and Keith wasn’t sure if that was making it better or worse, but whatever it was Keith actually felt, well he wasn’t sure what this feeling was but despite the fact that the universe had taken Shiro away again Keith didn’t feel as alone as last time.

/////

“So like, when are you going to get to the part that you realized you liked me?” Lance asked. “Cause it seems like you’re starting the story way early on.”

“I was getting there,” Keith said, pausing for a second in threading his fingers through Lance’s hair. “But since you interrupted I’m going to give you the short version.”

“Awww no fair.”

“Pretty much after we finished our “bonding moment” as you would like to call it-“

“I heard those quotation marks.”

“Anyway as we went our separate ways I just kinda stared at the door that you had gone through for a solid minute before it hit me that you definitely meant more to me than a teammate.”

“A friend?”

“No,” Keith said with a huff. “That I had-“

“Feelings for me?”

“Oh my gods stop teasing me,” Keith said with a groan as Lance laughed. “Now tell me a constellation story.”

“Okay, okay,” Lance said as he rolled himself off of Keith’s lap so Keith could curl up next to him. While Lance knew Keith liked to play with his hair when he was talking, he preferred being next to Lance when he talked. 

“So that one right there is Cassiopeia,” Lance said as he drew it out with his finger. “And the only reason that she is up there is to embarrass her.”

“What?”

“She’s the mother of Andromeda,” Lance explained and nearly laughed at how Keith’s face screwed up.

“I don’t think she deserved a constellation at all,” Keith said as he crossed his arms. “Considering she almost got her daughter killed.”

“Let me tell the story,” Lance said. “Pretty much Neptune decided that he wanted to humiliate her one last time since, well, she had her problems fixed by Perseus when he killed the monster. He decided to place her in the stars upside down, so she’s humiliated for all of eternity as being the upside down queen.”

“You know, I can respect that kind of amount of pettiness I don’t hate Neptune anymore,” Keith said as Lance started laughing. “What?”

“You’ve only known about him for like five minutes and you’ve moved from hating him to respecting him, that’s a pretty quick 180,” Lance said as Keith rolled his eyes.

“Oh whatever.”

“Now it’s your turn, tell me a story,” Lance said, resting his head on top of Keith’s. He wondered what Keith would talk about now.

Keith hummed. “I think I have an idea.”

/////

Keith felt like his stomach was all the way at his feet, this wasn’t what he had wanted. Never in a million years would he have wanted to be the black paladin, he could never be as good of a leader as Shiro was, heck he wasn’t even sure he could a leader period!

He should have never even mentioned what Shiro had said to him, if only he hadn’t let himself get riled up this might never had happened, and he wouldn’t be standing before his team looking at all the different emotions on their face, he wasn’t sure which one made him feel the worst. Why couldn’t they all act like Lance had at the idea of him being the leader? If anything Lance’s reaction was the one Keith agreed with the most.

“No, I don’t want to be the black paladin.” The words left his mouth before he could even think about it. He could hear them trying to convince him that the black lion wouldn’t make a mistake, but he couldn’t help but feel like there was definitely a mistake if the lion had chosen him instead of someone else, like Allura she could definitely lead the team, she had practically been doing it ever since Shiro had disappeared.

There had to be some other way than replacing Shiro, he knew that they needed to be able to form Voltron but there had to be another way, and despite voicing this opinion, one that he felt was very obvious, the others still didn’t seem to get it.

“I’m the loner, I’m not the leader Shiro seemed to think I was,” Keith said before looking away from them, he couldn’t bear to see the looks of disappointment on their faces. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do next, just leave and force the black lion to choose another paladin, his thoughts were cut off though by a hand being placed on his shoulder.

He sucked in his breath as he looked up to see Lance standing before him, he almost wanted to laugh at how it seemed to mirror the two of them a little over a week ago when Lance had comforted him, and it looked like he was about to do it again by that same soft look on his face. It wasn’t exactly sadness, but it wasn’t like it was a positive look either.

“Keith, no one can replace Shiro,” Lance said. “But there’s no way the black lion would choose a paladin that it didn’t think was able to lead Voltron. I respect it’s choice, and you should to.”

Before Keith could even think of something to say Lance went on to talk about how Shiro had been like a hero to him and soon after everyone joined in, telling some story about Shiro. It was bittersweet, knowing that this was them trying to move on but also trying their best to stay positive about the whole thing.

Despite the others talking Keith couldn’t take his eyes off of Lance. Despite the smile Lance had on his face every inch of his expression screamed sadness and Keith wished he knew what he could do in this moment to make Lance feel better like he had been doing for Keith. Every single possible idea flashed before his mind as he tried to think of something, but everything seemed far too personable or something that he didn’t think he should say in front of everybody. 

So Keith stayed quiet and wished he could figure out how he could help Lance as much as Lance helped him.

/////

“Oh man, sometimes I forget how often I tried to awkwardly comfort you back then,” Lance said with a grimace. “Gods I was so awkward.”

“I didn’t notice it,” Keith said with a shrug. “I just thought you were being nice, and like super cute.”

“Keiiiith!”

“Laaaance!” Keith parroted back. “Stop trying to put yourself down, you really helped me out back then, if I hadn’t had you I don’t think I would’ve handled everything as well as I did. Can you imagine if it had been any worse than what it already was?”

“Yeah it was pretty bad,” Lance nodded in agreement.

“That was when you were supposed to say, oh no babe you were great,” Keith said, damn he had learned too much from Lance.

“Hey, you know it’s true and besides I was too busy mooning over you half the time to think much on it anyway, yeah I was kinda upset for a while about the whole thing but like, let’s be honest I was practically a second leader.”

“A co-leader?” Keith offered with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah I mean, you pretty much went along with any plan I suggested.”

“Because they were great, and also maybe because I was too busy mooning over you to think of any better plans.”

“I think we’re both bad for each other’s hearts.”

“Hmm, it’s a risk I’m willing to take,” Keith said as he leaned up a bit and kissed Lance on the lips. “Now tell me a story.”

“Okay but it’s not going to be about constellations this time. I’m going to retell you of time when I realized I had fallen way too hard for you.”

/////

Lance wasn’t even really sure what he was doing standing outside of Keith’s room. Shiro had come back and the realization had hit him that now they had one too many paladins. He wasn’t really sure what he was thinking, but he knew that this meant someone would have to give up their lion, and well, the most obvious answer seemed to be him.

He wasn’t sure what compelled him to but he raised his hand up and knocked on Keith’s door without even thinking of it. He heard a muffled “come in,” and just about walked away. How could Keith even help him with this, with what he was feeling?

Lance still opened up the door anyway and walked in.

~~~

As Keith’s door slid shut behind him Lance committed the look on Keith’s face to memory. It was a look Lance had never seen on Keith before, it was almost soft and open, so unlike Keith’s normally guarded expressions.

Walking down the hall towards his room Lance almost laughed as he remembered what Keith had said before Lance had left. Leave the math to Pidge? What was Keith even trying to say, god he had sounded ridiculous, but still, Keith had tried to comfort him. Lance knew that Keith was honestly the worst person to go to about emotions on the team but he had still gone to him anyway.

The clawing anxiety was still there at the back of his brain, telling him that there was no way he would be able to stay as the paladin, not when the others were so much stronger, but Keith’s words of attempted comfort helped subside them, for now.

~~~

Lance could still hear Keith’s words ringing in his head as he ran towards Red. Keith had said he would stay behind and Shiro would take the Black Lion. He hadn’t even so much as looked in Lance’s direction as he did this but Lance couldn’t help but feel that this might have something to do with their little talk earlier.

Had Keith chosen to stay back because of what Lance had said? There was no way, right? Keith always wanted to be in the center of battle, he hated just sitting back, there’s no way he would voluntarily choose to stay back.

Now was not the time to be thinking this over though, Lance thought as he climbed into Red, but he needed to know. He would ask Keith when they got back.

~~~

In the end the Black Lion wouldn’t respond to Shiro and Keith ended up coming with them. Despite the fact that it seemed that there wouldn’t be another lion switch Lance still pulled Keith aside after the battle.

“Hey man, what was that earlier?” Lance asked after he had pulled Keith off to the side in the hanger. Their friends had already headed out towards the showers so they were alone in the hanger.

“Um what do you mean?” Keith asked, doing that stupidly cute head tilt thing. “Did I do something?”

“Uh yeah, you were going to stay behind,” Lance said as Keith stared up at him like he had two heads.

“Uh yeah, Shiro was back so I thought he’d want to go back to the Black Lion,” Keith said with a shrug as if it was that simple, was it really though?

“Keith, buddy, you and I both know that you hate sitting out in battle. It would drive you crazy to sit back at the castle and give backup,” Lance said as he crossed his arms. “So what was the deal with that?”

“I don’t know why you seem so upset about that,” Keith said as he stared down at the ground, oh he totally knew what Lance was talking about! “I was trying to make sure the team was at its most functioning.”

“Why didn’t you ask for Red back?” Lance asked, and he knew he had been right when he saw Keith pause.

“Because you’re in Red right now,” Keith said. “Besides Lance everything worked out fine, why don’t you drop it.”

“Because Keith I need to know, did you do what you did back there because of what I said earlier?” Lance asked, he heard Keith suck in his breath and that was honestly the only answer her needed.

“It might have, been a factor,” Keith said as he looked everywhere but at Lance.

“Keith why would you do that?” Lance asked, wishing he could just reach out and make Keith look at him. “You’re such a better fighter than me, the team needs you more.”  
Keith groaned. “Lance didn’t we already talk about this?”

“Yeah we did, and you said everything would work out for the best. The best would be you flying Red.”

“Lance listen, you’re so much better for the team than I am,” Keith said, looking for the first time since they had stared this whole mess of a conversation, and oh boy the determination in his eyes about took Lance’s breath away. “I know you don’t see it but I do. You help keep this team together! It’s better for the team to have someone like you rather than a loner like me.”

“What are you even talking about?” Lance said, throwing his hands up in the air. “This is war, we need the best fighters.”

“We also need people who can help keep the team together even at the worst of times, someone who’s able to make up a plan on the spot and work well with a team!” Keith said, balling his hands up into fists. “You have a lot more going for you than me!”

“Keith, do you know how stupid you sound right now?”

“Lance, do you know how stupid you sound right now?”

The two stared each other down until Lance just started laughing because god they had to sound so ridiculous right now arguing about who was better by telling the other how they were so much better, they had almost done a complete turnaround. Keith thankfully started laughing too so Lance wasn’t the only one who looked like a fool.

“Are-are we seriously fighting right now to make each other feel better?” Lance asked as he tried to muffle his laughter.

Keith nodded. “Gods we’re really dumb sometimes.”

“Yeah,” Lance said with one last chuckle. “We kinda are.”

“I hope I didn’t, uh, make you feel bad or anything by trying to sit back,” Keith said.

“What, no you didn’t it’s just, well, I didn’t really expect you to do something like that,” Lance confessed, man he really wanted to reach out and hold Keith’s hand.

“Well we’re friends right,” Keith asked, looking up at Lance with hesitation written all over his face. “That’s what friends do, right?”

“Of course we’re friends you doofus,” Lance said, okay now he really wanted to ruffle Keith’s hair, this was getting bad. “Now come on, let’s get showered off, you reek.”

“So do you,” Keith said as he shoved Lance’s arm and Lance just about jumped at the sudden contact. As the two headed out of the hanger Lance couldn’t help but feel like something new was forming between the two of them, maybe it was just his imagination but, the two of them had never been that honest before, at least to each other. Lance knew he shouldn’t hold his breath, but maybe, just maybe there was a chance Keith could feel the same way about him.

/////

“Awww man, you’re such a sap,” Keith said as he looked up at Lance with a smirk on his face.

“So are you,” Lance said, feeling himself puff up at Keith’s teasing.

“Hmm yeah,” Keith said as he kissed Lance’s hand that was intertwined with his. “Also to answer your question I was totally into you when we had that fake argument.”

“Hmm really, I never would have thought despite the hundreds of times you have told me that you’ve been into me since our bonding moment.”

“Why do I tell you my secrets if all you do is tease me for them?”

“Cause you love me,” Lance said as he kissed Keith’s cheek. “Now it’s your turn to tell an embarrassing story.”

“Fine, since we seem to be going in some kind of order I’ll keep it up.”

/////

Keith had felt the inklings for a while, ever since Shiro had come back. He didn’t belong with the team anymore, he had known since the beginning that he was no kind of leader, and the fact that he had to keep trying to be one after Shiro had returned had been utter torture. Shiro was the better leader, and with him leading the team they would be better. Besides, Keith couldn’t see how performances were really helping those who needed help right now.

He had slowly started transitioning over to the Blade before he had even consciously made the choice to join them. After letting the team down one too many times due to him being on a Blade mission he knew it would be best to confront them about leaving. It would be for the best, for him, for the team. He wasn’t needed on team Voltron anymore.

They all seemed to be supporting his choice, there had been a very tearful hug from everyone, but Keith couldn’t help but feel something form in the pit of his stomach. Was it fear, uncertainty? He couldn’t be sure, and now was not the time.

He stared down at the small bag he had and the even smaller amount of belongings in his room. Unlike the others he hadn’t been much for collecting and picking up things to make their rooms feel more “homey.” Yeah he had picked up the occasionally cool space rock here and there, and there was the weird little figure Lance had given him because, and his exact words were, “You’re room is way too boring man, you gotta spruce it up a bit you know?”

Keith didn’t know but it did make him smile whenever he saw the little figure. He picked it up and turned it in his hand before deciding to bring it. Surely he would have some space in his bunk to put it somewhere. It’s not like he was taking much else. He was leaving his jacket here on the ship, he already had his uniform and blade on him and there was no way he was going to be carrying his small collection of rocks with him.

He looked down at the contents in his bag one last time, the figure, a tattered book he had found and a blanket, before he closed it. Slinging the bag on his shoulder he took a deep breath, he needed to head out soon so he could meet up with the blades at the designated time.

Keith went to open the door and was surprised when it opened to reveal Lance.

“Hey man, I see you haven’t left yet,” Lance said as he bounced on the balls of his feet. He looked tired, almost. 

“No, but I’m about to. I, uh, don’t want to be late,” Keith said as his grip tightened on his bag. He had hoped he wouldn’t have run into anyone when he left, it was only going to make this harder, especially with Lance.

“Oh yeah, yeah, the Blades and their punctuality,” Lance said with a hollow chuckle. “I just wanted to give you something before you left.” 

“Oh, really?” Keith asked, kind of taken back, he hadn’t expected this.

“Yeah, just uh, something to keep in touch with us,” Lance said as he held up a communicator. Keith took and noticed that it looked a little rough around the edges, there was a small crack in the upper corner and the rubber edges showed wear.

“It’s uh, mine since it’s so last minute,” Lance said as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Pidge said she’ll make me a new one soon, but now you can talk to us if you ever start to miss us.”

“Thanks Lance,” Keith said as he held the communicator to his chest. “This means a lot to me.”

“Just remember to call us dude,” Lance said as he nudged Keith’s shoulder. “Don’t turn all broody on us or I’ll call you up myself.”

“Oh, but that would admit that you miss me,” Keith teased.

“Hopefully you won’t be there long enough for me to miss you and your stupid hair,” Lance said before giving Keith one last sad smile. “Stay safe out there.”

“Same to you,” Keith said before closing his bedroom door behind him and heading for the docking bay. The entire walk down the hallway he told himself not to look back.

/////

“You know,” Lance said once Keith had finished, “Sometimes I regret not trying to get you to stay.

“Lance-“

“Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s what you needed to do, I get that,” Lance said as he waved his hand at him, “But sometimes I wonder what would’ve happened if I had tried.”

“I still would’ve gone but I probably would’ve felt even guiltier than I already did.”

Lance hummed. “Yeah, but at least you would have known someone cared.”

“Lance you literally tried to call me every day, it was kinda hard to not feel like you didn’t care,” Keith said, rolling his eyes even though he was secretly grateful that Lance had talked to him so often, it had really helped him in the end.

“Maybe, but you still obviously didn’t feel like you were that important,” Lance muttered. Keith glanced over and saw how Lance’s face had scrunched up; he was beginning to think too much. 

“Hey, why don’t you tell me why you even decided to call me all the time, besides the fact that you had a huge crush on me,” Keith teased as he reached up and put his hand on Lance’s cheek hoping to lighten his mood.

“Hmmm, I guess I could humor you,” Lance said with a smile as he leaned into Keith’s hand.

/////

Lance stared down at his new communicator that Pidge had just handed him with a knowing smile on her face, why he wasn’t sure, but considering the way she had wiggled her eyebrows at him he was able to guess it had something to do with Keith.

Just thinking about the ex-paladin made Lance groan as he fell back onto his bed. Keith had been gone for a grand total of three days and Lance was still moping. Yeah he and Keith hadn’t been the closest of friends, not like him and Hunk, but it still felt like an important part of his life had been whipped away from him. The teasing whispers of his friends appeared in the back of his mind chanting, crush, crush, crush!

He turned the controller over in his hand before he made a decision with little thought. Turning the communicator on he flipped to his contacts and hit Keith’s name. A calling screen popped up and Lance just about hit the end call button in panic when Keith picked up.

“Lance?” Keith asked as he looked Lance up and down like he wasn’t even expecting any calls from them. “Is everything alright?” Yep Keith had defiantly thought that Lance must’ve been in some life or death situation if he was calling him.

 

“Uh yeah everything is fine mullet,” Lance said with an awkward chuckle as he accidently called Keith by that old nickname of his. “Just checking up on you man, making sure you’re all settled in and stuff.”

“Oh, um, I’m doing fine,” Keith said, looking like Lance himself had shown up at the Blades base, did he really think no one would have called him?

“Have you made any new friends?” Lance asked, partly to tease him but he was also genuinely hoping Keith wasn’t going to wall himself off while he was with the Blade.

“Uh, I’m kinda friends with Kolivian, I guess,” Keith said with a shrug. “I haven’t really talked to anyone.”

“Keith, you’ve been there for three days already, how have you not talked to anyone?”

“I’ve uh, been busy?”

“Sitting in your room?”

“Shut up.”

Lance was opening his mouth to fire back when the castle’s alarm went off. 

“Crap I gotta go,” Lance said as he heard someone running down the hall. “I’ll call you later”

Lance hung up before Keith could say anything else.

~~~

“Hey Keith,” Lance said the minute Keith accepted his call. It had been three days since he had first called Keith and as he had been laying around in his bed doing nothing except not sleep, so he figured he should call his teammate up. “You just missed the craziest mission.”

“I’m guessing this is what the alarm was for the other day?” Keith asked; it looked like he was just sitting in the dark with only the blue light of the communicator illuminating his face, but what little it did show was enough for Lance to notice that Keith looked like he hadn’t slept once since he had gone with the Blades.

“Yeah,” Lance said as he considered whether to mention the whole sleep deprived look Keith was trying to pull off but decided maybe not right now. “A nearby planet sent us this distress signal, but when we showed up there was like, no one around anywhere. We couldn’t even find any signs of civilization so we went to leave, right?”

“Right,” Keith said with a nod.

“So as we’re going to leave we find the lions like overgrown with vines,” Lance said, throwing his arms wide up for effect. “So we try to cut through them only for the vines to start to attack us! Anyway long story short the planet itself was alive and had managed to send off energy that looked like a distress signal so we’d come down and get eaten by it! So we were almost planet food, what about you? Have you been almost eaten by an asteroid or something?”

Keith looked like he almost wanted to laugh, almost. “No, just routine drills and the occasional mission. I’m actually supposed to be going on a pretty big mission tomorrow so I might not be able to answer you if you call.”

“I got it dude, I’ll just wait for you to call then,” Lance said with a shrug, hoping that Keith would actually call him and not just leave him with radio silence. Was Keith talking to the others too? He’d have to ask them tomorrow. “So what kinda mission is it?”

“That’s, uh, classified.”

“Oh come on Keith, you can tell me,” Lance said with a smile. “It’s not like I’m going to send Zarkon a little note with your plans on it.”

“Hmmm, how do I know you’re really Lance though?” Keith asked and there was that stupid crooked grin and raised eyebrow that Keith always did when he was joking around that made Lance’s stomach squirm.

“Come on Keith,” Lance whined. “Don’t be a butt.”

“Hmm I don’t know, you could just be a really good Lance impersonator,” Keith said as he tapped his chin and Lance almost didn’t care that he was a being a pain in the butt, he actually looked relaxed for once.

“I don’t remember the bonding moment.”

“Never mind you are Lance, and goodbye,” Keith said in a monotone voice as he went to turn off the communicator.

“No, no, no, no I’m sorry,” Lance said as he burst out laughing. “Don’t turn me off!”

“No, I’m hurt by this second betrayal,” Keith said his voice even and his mouth set in a straight line. Lance couldn’t tell if he was for real or joking at this point.

“I’m sorry Keith, jeez here listen up, I totally remember when you cradled me in your arms!”

“Hmm, now that I have that on tape you can never deny it again,” Keith said with a smirk, oh he was good sometimes when he wanted to be.

“Oh shut it, so will you tell me about your mission?”

“Okay fine,” Keith said with a sigh as he pushed a strand out hair out of his eye. “But you can’t tell Shiro about it, okay?”

“Okay,” Lance said with a nod.

After they had hung up later that night Lance laid in bed wanting to do nothing more than run out of his room and tell Shiro about Keith’s mission.

~~~

Keith miraculously did end up calling Lance about a week later, with a large bandage wrapped around the upper part of his chest that Lance could see in the tiny screen.

“Keith what the hell happened to you?!!!” Lance cried as his grip on the communicator tightened.

“Lance jeez, keep your voice down,” Keith said as he winced. “I’m still in the med bay and I’m not the only one in here.”

“I’m sorry that I panicked when I saw that you apparently got yourself injured,” Lance said, his voice extremely high pitched as he tried not to yell.

“It’s only a scratch,” Keith said with a shrug before wincing at the movement.

“A scratch?” Lance whispered yelled. “Keith that looks like a bit more than a scratch.”

“Okay so I was maybe shot but I’m going to be fine,” Keith said. “And I called, like you said to.”

“Hmmm, I feel like you’re trying to make me feel bad for yelling at you.”

“Maybe, but what about you guys, anything good happen recently?” Keith asked, obviously trying to change the subject.

“Nothing as crazy as getting shot but we have started these shows, Coran’s really into it,” Lance said with a chuckle.

“Oh really, if I were still with you guys I would hate them,” Keith said with a groan.

“Oh yeah you totally would,” Lance said with a nod, despite the fact that just a few moments ago Keith had Lance’s blood pressure sky rocketing it was almost like just talking to him was enough to relax him, in an odd way. Maybe it would’ve been better if Keith hadn’t called looking like fresh death.

“Tell me about them, the shows, like what are you doing exactly?” Keith asked. “Are you flying your lions around or something?”

“Oh Keith, it’s so much more than that,” Lance said with a smile before delving into how Coran had apparently planned out a whole skit.

~~~

“Then Hunk did this crazy barrel roll in his lion and Allura and I did this little spiral thing and Pidge did a flip or something and Shiro came up behind us, and oh man dude I bet it looked super cool!” Lance said as he recounted that days show during his and Keith’s regular phone call. Which was kinda weird whenever he thought about it, he had never expected for him and Keith to be close enough to have regularly scheduled phone call about every three days. Sometimes Keith even called him early. But what was even crazier was it didn’t seem that he was talking to the others as often. When he mentioned the other day how Keith had called him when they were in the middle of an impromptu mission Pidge had given him a weird look.

“I’m sure it looked over the top,” Keith said with a chuckle as he rolled his eyes. While he definitely would’ve hated doing the shows himself if he was there he did get a kick out of Lance describing them to him. “Did you do a skit too?”

“Nah, Coran said we didn’t have enough time to fit it in. But apparently next week it’s going to be even bigger than before, Coran’s words though,” Lance said with a laugh. “What about you dude? Doing any fun Blade things?”

“I’m going on a data collection mission tomorrow, it’s some Galra base. I don’t know what data exactly; I just have to make sure Throok gets in and out without any problems.”

“So you’re the distraction?”

“….No.”

“Just don’t get yourself shot again,” Lance said with a sigh.

“That only happened once!”

“That’s already one time to many, and let’s not forget you’ve gotten stabbed a grand total of what? Eight times?”

“It was seven.”

“Wow seven so much better.”

“Shut it Lance, like you have any room to talk, jumping in front of explosions for anyone and all.”

“…..Shut up,” Lance grumbled as Keith laughed.

~~~

“Are you eating?” Lance asked suddenly. He had been in the middle of telling Keith about the latest show when he had noticed that Keith’s face looked like it had become paler over the last few calls.

“What?” Keith asked, his eyebrows bunching together.

“Like are you eating at least once a day Keith,” Lance said, he had given up asking Keith about his sleep habits long ago when it had resulted in fight that led to a whole week of radio silence. “I’m just worried about you man. If you’re going to be off on missions all the time you have to at least be getting some nutrients.”

“I eat Lance,” Keith said as his face scrunched up, crap if he didn’t tread carefully he could end up getting the cold shoulder again because geez care about Keith for one second and he acts like it’s the end of the world.

“Every day?”

“Mostly,” Keith said with a shrug. “Sometimes I fall asleep before I can get down to the mess hall.”

“Keith,” Lance groaned. “You gotta eat.”

“I am, Lance,” Keith said. “Now are you going to finish your story or are you going to keep nagging me about my health.”

“I can do both,” Lance said as Keith groaned, but he continued on with his story anyway.

~~~

“So than Kolivan was all like, don’t take the shot,” Keith said, mocking Kolivan’s deadpan tone and sending Lance into a fit of laughter. “And I was all like, I’m taking the shot. So I dived into the control room with like five galra officers and managed to get in and out with the info we needed. And all Kolivan could do was grumble about the way of the Blade and stuff.”

“Wow Keith, I’m in awe of your storytelling skills,” Lance teased, despite the fact he felt so on edge that his entire body was buzzing. In less than twenty four hours they were going to reclaim one third of the galaxy from Zarkon’s rule, hopefully. Every nerve of his body seemed to be on edge, so of course he had decided the best thing to do was to talk to the guy who could leave Lance’s heart beating out of his chest with one smile. Maybe not the best idea, but at least he didn’t feel like he was about to jump out of his skin if he didn’t do something.

“Fine, you won’t hear me tell you another story ever again,” Keith said though there was no real bite behind it.

“Of course you won’t buddy,” Lance said as he rolled his eyes. “How you feeling though, about the whole plan tomorrow.”

Keith shrugged. “I’m just looking at it like another mission. Though we really need to succeed in this mission, so no mistakes you know.”

“I guess,” Lance said with a huff as he flopped down onto his. “I wish I could get into the same headspace as you sometimes, when it comes to missions.”

Keith hummed but didn’t say anything.

“Do-do you think you might come back after this mission?” Lance asked, he knew he was being hopeful but what nothing could hurt just asking him. “Like back to Voltron?”

Keith hesitated before he answered, but it was enough for Lance to know the answer before he even got it. “Probably not, no. I mean, I’m just doing so much with the Blades right now that is helpful-“

“No, no, I get it,” Lance said, doing his best to seem nonchalant. “Just wondering, but we’ll see you afterwards right? I mean, we’re supposed to meet up afterwards and talk about the mission once it’s over.”

“Yeah, I guess I’ll see you then.”

/////

“I still can’t believe I was the only one you talked to regularly,” Lance said once he had finished his story. “Like, you didn’t even talk to Shiro-Clone Shiro that is.”

Keith shrugged. “I had a super big crush on you and it made me happy that you seemed to want to talk to me even when we weren’t on the Voltron together.”

“Wow, sappy.”

“This is coming from the guy who spent about half of those calls trying to get me to eat or sleep,” Keith teased. “But seriously, those calls really helped me when I was with the Blade. It helped me look forward to something that wasn’t just the next mission.”

“I don’t know sometimes I think I could’ve done more,” Lancer shrugged as he tightened his grip on Keith’s hand for a split second.

“Don’t try and blame yourself for what I tried to do Lance, you did a lot more for me during that time than you’d like to give credit for.”

/////

Keith’s entire body felt numb as he made his way back to his room-no, his old room. The door still swished open at his hand and he walked into the room as if he was on auto piolot, falling onto the bed face first. He was still having trouble trying to comprehend everything that had happened. He had almost died, willingly. 

His heart was still beating in his ears as his mind flashed back to the events that had happened only moments earlier. When he had been heading straight for that witch Hagger’s ship with his ship, ready to take down that barrier in any way possible, even if it meant giving up his own life.

Kolivan had radioed in to him seconds after Lotor’s little speech to have him meet up with him in the castle. Apparently Kolivan had wanted to be a part of Lotor’s questioning. Instead of meeting up with Kolivan though he had snuck off. Everything was just all too much right now, he couldn’t deal with listening to Lotor trying to barter his way onto their side, gods what if he knew that Keith almost killed himself and hung it over their heads that he had saved him. There was no way Keith could ever handle his stupidity being used as a barter chip, if he hadn’t been so stupid, if he hadn’t been so reckless, if he hadn’t-

Keith was cut off by a knock at his door. He stared at it with wide eyes, who would come to look for him in here? Could it be Shiro? No way, maybe Matt, no, no that couldn’t be it either. When another knock sounded Keith managed to stand up on shaky legs and open the door. He hadn’t expected Lance to be standing on the other side of the door.

“I thought I’d find you here,” Lance said, letting out a sigh as he moved past Keith and into the bedroom.

“What-what are you doing here?” Keith asked, turning around to face Lance as the door closed.

“I’m checking on you dummy,” Lance said with a huff as he crossed his arms and gave Keith and quick up and down. “Matt mentioned something about you.”

“Wha-what did he say exactly?” Keith asked, he could feel his entire body shaking as fear coursed through his veins. Had Matt told everyone what Keith had almost done?

“He was really vague,” Lance said as he waved his a hand around. “But he did say that you almost did something really stupid and thought maybe someone should check on you.”

“Oh, and were you the lucky chosen one,” Keith said with a huff, not meaning for the edge that accidently snuck into his voice. What the heck was wrong with him, Lance had done nothing to deserve that. Keith held his hand up before Lance could say anything. “Sorry I didn’t mean-“

“I chose to come see you on my own Keith,” Lance said, his brow furrowing together. “The others wanted to talk to Lotor first and I, well I just wanted to make sure everything was fine. Matt sounded kinda worried.”

“Oh,” Keith said simply before walking over and sitting down on the bed, he was just so tired despite that he felt adrenaline coursing through his body at the same time.

“Yeah, so uh, what happened out there buddy?” Lance asked, sitting down next to Keith. “I know you said something about a plan to take down the barrier.”

“Yeah I was uh, planning to take it out,” Keith croaked out, he could feel his throat constricting as he tried not to cry. Ever since he had entered the room the tears had been threatening to overflow, but now that Lance was here it was getting harder to keep it all in.

“Okay,” Lance said, obviously waiting for more, and for some reason Keith deiced to tell him even if it felt like his throat was saw paper.

“I was flying my ship towards the barrier so that the crash might break the barrier,” Keith said, not bothering to add anything else.

“Like, you were going to eject yourself out before the impact or….” Lance said, trailing off and waiting for Keith to jump in assure him that it wasn’t what he was thinking, that it wasn’t the worst.

Keith’s silence was enough to answer his question.

“Keith, no,” Lance said, his voice soft as he reached out and placed his hand on Keith’s shoulder. “You weren’t going to- you weren’t about to-“

“What does it matter, I’m fine,” Keith said, cutting Lance off before he said the words Keith feared to hear.

“Keith no, it does matter,” Lance said, his voice full of worry and concern as he got Keith to face him. “You almost didn’t come back from this mission, and I don’t know about you but that’s pretty damn important!”

“Lance-“

“No Keith, don’t argue with me about this,” Lance said, holding up his hand to silence Keith. “Why would you do that? What made you think that this was the best thing to do?”

“Because you guys were in danger,” Keith cried, it was the most obvious answer, why else would he have almost done what he had did, “I don’t know about you Lance but the entirety of Voltron is a bit more important than my single life!”

“Keith, your life is so important too! Do you know what it would do to us if something happened to you! Especially if it was because of us!” Lance said, sounding like he was on the brink of tears. “Keith, you’re such an important part of our team, and you’re important to us just as yourself. You’re our friend; you’re a part of this weird family unit we’ve created up here! Don’t think that your life isn’t as important as ours, because it is to us.”

Keith was left speechless as he struggled to say something, anything to Lance. However when it became obvious that he wasn’t going to say anything Lance pulled him in for a hug. It was a really awkward hug considering Lance was more or less just hugging Keith’s side but for just a few seconds Keith was grounded again.

“You should come back to us,” Lance whispered into Keith’s hair, so quietly that Keith almost didn’t hear him. He pretended that he didn’t.

/////

“I still can’t believe you never said anything back to me,” Lance fake whined as Keith finished his story.

“I can’t believe you lied to me about Matt telling everyone that something happened when in reality he had only told you,” Keith mocked as Lance lightly elbowed him in the side.

“Don’t be rude dude, in case you’ve forgotten you are currently all curled up in my side and very vulnerable.”

“I think I could take you.”

Lance let out a fake gasp. “Wow I can’t believe that you would say that to your loving boyfriend.”

“My loving boyfriend who teases me at every possible opportunity.”

“Oh please, I’ve teased you for years,” Lance teased as Keith rolled his eyes despite the small smile gracing his face.

/////

“Keith you looked like a mannequin at today’s meeting,” Lance said to Keith the minute after they had gotten their hellos in. Lance was still a little bit peeved that Keith was still a part of the Blade, but he was looking better despite the incident that happened over a month ago. “Were you even there dude? Or were you off gallivanting around somewhere?”

“First off, I don’t really go gallivanting around, kinda hard when you’re in the middle of deep space,” Keith said, holding up one finger before holding up a second. “And second of course I was there, I just didn’t say anything, no one was talking to me.”

“Keith, you don’t need to have someone staring you directly in the eyes to be able to talk. When I asked that question I was asking it to both you and Kolivan, though I was hoping you would’ve answered it.”

“Oh,” Keith said as his brow furrowed together. “I’ll remember that for next time.”

“You won’t do it next time either,” Lance pointed out and Keith just shrugged, it wasn’t like this was the first time they had this conversation. Apparently Lance was the only one Keith was even talking to on the team now, it worried him a bit that it seemed like Keith was distancing himself from the rest of the them.

“How’s Lotor doing?” Keith asked, trying to sound uninterested but Lance knew that Keith wanted to know if they had finally ejected Lotor out into the cold unforgiving void of space.

“Unfortunately the walking shampoo commercial is still locked up in the ship’s makeshift brig,” Lance said, agreeing with Keith’s groan. “Shiro keeps saying that we should use him for info since he keeps helping us out with taking out important parts of the Galra Empire. But honestly, I’d rather we do it on our own instead of using that shifty guy’s info that will probably lead us all to our deaths.”

“All I’m going to say is that the faster you get rid of him the better.”

“Do you think you convince Shiro that, cause he sure isn’t listening to literally all of us saying the same thing.”

“I highly doubt I could change his mind if he’s going against all of your suggestions.”

“Worth a try,” Lance said with a shrug before launching himself into telling Keith a story that had been cut off during their last call, it was nice having someone who would listen to his stories about his family since both Hunk and Pidge had already both heard them all before. He missed them, and it made it a little bit easier when he talked about the old times.

/////

“Hmmm, I’m still bitter that you wouldn’t come back.”

“I know Lance, you remind me often,” Keith said as he played with Lance’s fingers. “Besides, I think it was better if I wasn’t there. You might not have ever figured out what you did if I had been there.”

“Oh, are you about to tell me how smart I was for figuring out about the clone?”

“Well now I have to,” Keith said with a chuckle before starting his story.

/////

Keith knew something was up when Lance called him on one of their non-call days. Luckily he had just gotten back to his room when Lance called so he was able to pick up.

“Hey Lance, is something wrong?” Keith asked immediately as he sat himself down onto the bunk.

“Oh uh, well, um, this was stupid why am I calling you?” Keith heard Lance mutter as he ran his hand through his hair, momentarily distracting Keith. What, Keith was only half human and half galra, he could only handle so much.

“Lance, obviously it isn’t stupid if it has you this worked up, and calling me,” Keith said, teasing Lance a bit in the end in hopes of helping him loosen up.

“Yeah,” Lance said with a sigh. “It’s just; I’m worried what you’re going to say…”

“Lance, dude, just spit it out,” Keith said, he was beginning to get a bit worried, did something happen to one of the others?

“Shiro has, uh, he’s been acting a bit…off,” Lance said, waving his hand around while he looked at anywhere other than the screen.

“What do you mean by off?” Keith asked, he knew that before he had left for the Blade Shiro had been acting different towards him but he had just chalked it up to the whole being captured for the second time since that was definitely not good for him.

“Like, it’s almost like he’s a different person sometimes,” Lance said before going into more details. “Today he, uh man this is going to sound stupid, but he yelled at me for trying to calm the tension. He and Allura were about to get into I think about helping Lotor out. Allura said there was no way we could trust Lotor that much and we all agreed, except for Shiro. So when I tried to tell him that we’re all, you know, on the same he just kinda blew up-and I get this sounds like im complaining but wait there’s more, I swear,” Lance said as he held up a hand.

“Later we did this thing were we put our bayard in at the same time and this cosmic thingy happened where we were all standing in some weird dimension or something and this really shadowy Shiro appeared. And then everyone else kinda disappeared but I kinda stayed behind a little longer and shadowy Shiro started to call out to me but I woke back up before I could hear anything. So I mentioned it to Shiro and he had no idea what I was talking about, and I don’t know it’s just kinda weird how accepting he is of Lotor and just, I don’t know but it’s weird, right?”

Keith was still letting everything as it all began to hit him all at once what Lance was saying, that Shiro wasn’t really Shiro.

Lance must’ve noticed the confusion clouding his face as he quickly began to do some sort of damage control. “Not-not that you need to believe anything I said. I’m probably just being paranoid or something-“

“Lance, your instinct have never been wrong yet,” Keith said as he stared at Lance with wide eyes as he tried to process everything, what was he going to do if this was true? What if he hadn’t found the real Shiro and he had brought back a spy or imposter into Voltron. Obviously he couldn’t be too bad if the Black Lion had accepted him but still, a lot of the things Lance was saying were ringing true to what Keith had begun to notice before he had left.

“I think-I think you should keep an eye one him,” Keith said as he licked his lips, trying to figure out something to do. “I’ll try to get in touch with him to check some stuff out, and we can go from there.”

“Got it,” Lance said with a sigh before giving Keith a weary smile that made Keith’s heart do a flip. “Thank for believing in me.”

“Any time Lance.”

/////

“And then began the greatest detective case of all time,” Lance said, throwing his free hand out for effect. “Who knows what would’ve happened if it hadn’t been for us.”

“I mean, eventually we would’ve found out that something was up when Hagger kept popping up wherever you guys were,” Keith said.

“Yeah but we figured it out quicker,” Lance pointed out. “Plus I wasn’t the only one that called on a non-call day. I vaguely remember you calling me to tell me about your mom.”

“Hey I was kinda losing my mind and I needed to talk to someone who didn’t see emotions as a luxury.”

/////

Keith was obviously freaking out when Lance answered his call.

“Hey dude, what’s with the surprise call?” Lance asked before taking note of the wild look in Keith’s eye. “Hey Keith are you alright-“

“I met my mom,” Keith said, cutting Lance off with his jittery voice. Keith looked almost, lost in sense as he waited for Lance’s reaction.

Lance paused as Keith’s words sunk in. “Wait, what?!”

“Yeah one my last mission I met her, actually we’re still in the same ship right now and im hiding in a supply closet because I’m freaking out a little,” Keith said as glanced frantically off screen.

“Wait, seriously?” Lance asked. “That’s great Keith! I mean, is it great or…..”

“I’m kinda feeling a bit numb right now, like I’m not all the way here, you know,” Keith said as Lance nodded. “Like I want to be angry at her because she left me, I’m messed up from her leaving me and making me feel like-like I wasn’t worth it. That no one would ever want to even stick around because both of my parent left me-“

“Keith buddy, no,” Lance said, feeling his stomach drop a bit at Keith’s confession. Why did he have to be probably halfway across the galaxy so Lance couldn’t hug him right now, because the boy obviously needed a hug or something.

“But I’m also kinda happy because, it’s my mom you know. I’ve wanted to know about her for years and now I finally have the opportunity to do it and she even seems to feel bad for leaving me and it’s just-it’s just so much to take in at once all while knowing that I’m going back to the Blade to have to act like nothing has changed,” Keith said as he ran his hand through his hair, Lance watched the movement in extreme detail.

“Keith, the best thing I can say is do what will make you happy,” Lance said feeling his heart squeeze as he watched a thousand emotions run across Keith’s face. “But I think you should try to talk to your mom, for yourself at least. You’ve always talked about how you wish you knew more about yourself, and this might be an opportunity to get some of those questions answered.”

Lance could hear Keith sigh. “Thanks Lance, for uh, talking me through this, but I kinda want to forget about it for a bit so could you tell me a story?”

“Of course dude,” Lance said as he settled in on his bed, he was going to make this one a long one. “So let me tell you about the time Luis and I almost successfully scammed our entire neighborhood.”

/////

“That reminds me, when are you planning to meet up with your mom?” Lance asked absently as he waved his and Keith’s intertwined hands around. “I know you’ve been talking to her.”

“I’m not sure,” Keith said with a shrug. “I think she wants to come down to Earth at some point and go through the stuff in my shack to see if there’s any of dad’s stuff left. I think she also wants to find out what happened to him so she can quote, kick his ass.”

“Am I allowed to be a part of that?” Lance joked, though he’d be lying if he said that he hadn’t created numerous fake confrontations he would have if he ever met Keith’s dad.

“You’ll have to ask my mom,” Keith answered.

“You’re mom loves me, I’m sure she’ll agree.”

“Yeah don’t I know it,” Keith said with a roll of his eyes. “It’s pretty bad that she was literally telling me what a good catch you were before I even told her that I liked you.”

“I’m sure it was implied.”

“You’re sure?” Keith teased as his mouth quirked up into a smile.

“Oh I’m sure alright, she told me the first time we met.”

“Oh really? Because that’s not how I remembered it.”

/////

Keith had considered numerous different ways his friends would meet his mom, especially since Lance had been pestering him recently to get her on one of their calls so he could meet her. He had always figured it would be on the battlefield or during some meeting on the ship. Instead they all met his mom in one of the worst ways possible.

After Lance had talked to him about how weird Shiro had been acting the two of them had done some researching and digging. In Lance’s case it was keeping a log of any non-Shiro like things that happened while Keith tried to find anything on any of Hagger’s research, wondering if she could’ve done something to Shiro the last time they captured him. Keith hadn’t been too sure on whether or not he had believed Lance at first, but after talking to Shiro afterwards he realized something was up when Shiro couldn’t even remember how they met.

Somehow along the way his mom had gotten involved since she may have overheard him and Lance talking about it once, and since she had once been inside the top rank of the Galra she knew of some of Hagger’s whispered plans, one of which had been to try and destroy Voltron from the inside out. The two had managed to find some information on a project of Hagger’s thanks to Lance dropping some coordinates he had found when the team had been at Galra headquarters. The project had been called Project Kuron, and just reading the plans had shook Keith to the bone at the fact that it was probably amidst his friends right now and once it reached stage five his friends would most definitely be dead.

Needless to say time was of the essence so when Lance mentioned how there was going to be a sort of celebration for the coalition members his mom had suggested that it would be the best time to strike, when Kuron would be the least guarded.

So the two showed up and hid in the shadows as they waited for the right opportunity. Keith wasn’t doing too much waiting but more staring at Lance from across the room. He looked really cute in the suit he was wearing and Keith had a weak heart and hadn’t seen Lance in person for months and-

He felt his mom elbow him. “Getting a bit distracted are we?” Krolia teased.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Keith said without even taking his eyes off of Lance.

“Go talk to him,” Krolia said as she took a sip of the drink she had slipped from one of the waiters walking around. “He has been helping us out right?”

“He was the one who figured this out first,” Keith pointed out as he felt his heart flutter as he watched Lance laugh at something Hunk had said.

“Well we could use any kind of help with this,” Krolia said. “Go talk to him, he is the one you have feelings for, right?”

Keith sputtered at that last part. “Wha-what?”

“You are very obvious,” Krolia said with a smirk as she took another drink. “But I like him, he makes you laugh.”

Keith glared at her while trying to hide the blush threatening to spread across his cheeks before stalking off to go talk to Lance. While there was still some tension between him and his mom it had gotten between the two of them, after Keith had yelled at her for a good twenty minutes for leaving him. Slipping into the crowd he made his way over to where Lance stood, Hunk was still with him and Keith couldn’t risk being seen by him so he slipped into the shadows by the hallway.

He somehow managed to catch Lance’s eye and tilted his head a bit to tell Lance to come over.

Lance turned to Hunk and said something before heading Keith’s way. Slipping into the hallway Keith waited until Lance showed up from around the corner.

“Keith!” Lance cried as he pulled Keith into a tight hug. “What are you doing here?”

“Some secret mission stuff,” Keith said with a shrug, taking note of how Lance still had his arms draped over his shoulders.

“Oooo, you wanna tell me?” Lance asked.

“It’s about Project Kuron,” Keith said as he watched Lance’s smile falter, the minute Keith had found out about the project he had made sure to tell Lance about it immediately.

“You came here to take him down huh?” Lance asked with a sad smile on his face. “And here I thought it was because you missed us.”

“Well that’s defiantly a part of it,” Keith said a small smile crossed his face. “I’ve missed you-everybody a lot.”

“Awww broody Keith is admitting he has a heart,” Lance teased, his normal smile spreading across his face and making Keith’s heart clench.

“I’ve always had one,” Keith muttered. “Besides if everything ends up being true there’s going to be four paladin and five lions”

“Wait Keith are you-“ Lance began before Keith cut him off.

“I’ll come back until we find the real Shiro,” he said, not wanting to get Lance’s hopes up.

“Seriously?” Lance asked before pulling Keith into another hug. “The others will be so happy.”

“I don’t think they’re going to be too happy when I stop them from trying to save Kuron tonight,” Keith said with a sigh, this was going to take a lot of explaining.

“Don’t worry about it,” Lance said, as he brushed some of Keith’s hair out of his face and about made Keith’s heart explode. “I got your back dude.”

Keith’s smile widened. “And I got yours.” He pulled Lance over towards his mom.

“He’s going to help us out,” Keith said as he noticed Lance staring his mom down.

“Thank you Lance,” Krolia said before turning to Keith and not even bothering to whisper, “He is much taller than I thought, I like him.”

Keith was about to hide his face in his hands when his mom grabbed both of them by the shoulders. “We need to go in now. You two hold back the other paladins while I override Hagger’s spell.”

That’s how the rest of the paladins met his mom. With her body slamming Kuron into the ground while he and Lance help them back and with her yelling “Not to worry I’m Keith’s mother,” like it made it any better.

/////

“See, she did say she liked me,” Lance said as Keith shook his head. “And she even knew you liked me Mr. Obvious.”

“I mean let’s be honest here; didn’t she also call you obvious after we got together?” Keith teased.

“Listen, we both established that we were very obvious about our crushes to everyone but each other,” Lance said with a solemn nod. “I mean I didn’t take my hands off of you during our little reunion.”

“Well I didn’t mind,” Keith said, giving Lance a look that would have sent him to his knees if he had been standing. “Besides we did that kind of stuff all the time before we even got together. Remember when the Black Lion opened for you?”

/////

Lane was dealing with a whole lot at the moment, with the main thing blaring in is mind the fact that just minutes ago the Black Lion had opened up to him. With the Shiro that had been with them turning out to be a fake created by Haggar the Black Lion had been once again left without a leader. Lance had just kinda expected things to go back to how it had been last time Shiro had disappeared. Instead the Black Lion didn’t so much acknowledge Keith and when Lance had stepped forward to offer some words of comfort or something the Black Lion had opened instantly.

The team had all congratulated him and told him that they were sure he would be a great leader. Eventually he had been able to find a way to sneak off to his room because even if he had always kinda dreamed of being the leader he hadn’t expected it to ever happen, and now that it was it was kinda, overwhelming.

When he heard the knock on the door he half expected it to be Hunk telling him to come out to dinner, only to find Keith standing in front of him and back into his old clothes no less. While he did admit the whole Blade uniform was….very formfitting, Keith looked much more like himself in his ridiculous cropped jacket.

“Hey dude, I didn’t expect you to make a visit,” Lance said as he leaned against the doorframe. “I thought Pidge would still be forcing you to spend quality time with her considering how much she would whine about how I’ve been hogging all of your attention.”

“Nah, after she won the game I think she had gotten what she wanted so I was able to sneak away,” Keith said with a shrug. “Besides I wanted to come see how you were doing anyway.”

“Hmm, why, did you miss me that much?” Lance half teased even though he wanted to tell Keith how freaked out he was and he couldn’t help but feel the tendrils of doubt invade his mind.

“Well you’re our leader now, and I know how stressful it can be to have that role suddenly shoved into your hands,” Keith said with a shrug as he pointed inside Lance’s room. “Mind if I come in?” 

“No, of course not,” Lance said, stepping aside and closing the door behind Keith.

“I just-I just want to make sure you’re doing okay,” Keith said as he put a hand on Lance’s shoulder. Ever since Keith had come back, even if it had only been for less than forty eight hours, he couldn’t help but notice how touchy Keith had become, not that Lance was complaining. 

“I mean, it’s great I’m the leader, I’m flying the Black Lion, it’s everything Garrison me would want,” Lance said, trying to come off as nonchalant. Apparently while he had been gone Keith had gotten better at reading Lance.

“Lance, listen,” Keith said, raising his hand so both of Lance’s shoulders were covered. “You’re going to be a great leader, when I was in Black you we’re practically a leader right alongside me. I know you can do this, and that you’re going to be damn good at it. You keep this team together, and have you heard your strategy plans, they’d have Shiro shaking in his boots as he tries to hold onto the strategic extraordinaire title because he knows you deserve it.”

“Now you’re just being a bit over the top,” Lance said, though he couldn’t help the smile crossing his face as he let Keith’s words sink in.

“Yeah well, I just want to make sure that you know that we all believe in you.”

“Are you sure that those weren’t just all things you’ve wanted to say to me?” Lance teased though his stomach twisted up at the thought.

“Well they are all definitely things that I’ve thought to myself,” Keith said with a smirk, and wait just a tick, did that-was that flirting? “Though I’m sure the others feel the same way.”

Ah maybe not. “Thanks Keith, somehow that really cheered me up.”

“Wow I’m so glad,” Keith deadpanned with his patented grumpy face before busting out laughing.

Lance followed in suit watching Keith from the corner of his eye and feeling his stomach swoop as it hit him all at once, this was definitely not just a crush anymore. 

/////

“Isn’t this just the story of when you realized you were in love with me?” Keith teased, during the story he had moved, settling himself between Lance’s legs and snuggling into his chest.

“It can serve more than one purpose Keith,” Lance said as he rested his chin on Keith’s head. “So what memory are we going to relive next, huh?”

“One of my favorite ones.”

“Ooooh, this should be good.”

////

When Keith had imagined telling Lance how he felt it had never been anything….simple. He always figured it would be on the battlefield, when he was always overflowing with the most emotion and his nerves were on edge. He had always figured that if he would ever confess it would be in the heat of the moment and a mess. In the end, it ended up being the complete opposite.

The two were sitting on the couch, Keith was reading a book on the history of a planet they were going to be visiting soon and Lance was watching some old Altean movie with his feet propped up in Keith’s lap. This kind of thing had been happening a lot lately, the two of them sitting together but doing two completely different things. Sometimes it would strike Keith just how much Lance had become such an important fixture in his life, to the point it was hard to imagine Lance as not such a large part of his life.

Keith looked up from his book to sneak a peek at Lance only to catch the other staring at him. Lance sputtered and tried to play it off despite the blush on his cheeks that gave away his embarrassment. An idea flashed through Keith’s mind and before he could even mull it over he went through with it.

“Like what you see?” he teased, no flirted, at Lance whose blush only got deeper.

“What-what’s gotten into you today?” Lance sputtered as he seemed pretended that he hadn’t just got caught staring, not that Keith minded in the slightest.

“Mmm, I don’t know,” Keith shrugged as he closed his book and set it down on the counter. “Just thinking about some stuff.” Like how he knew they were dancing around some kind of feelings, Lance was touchy with all his friends but it was different when it came to him. Recently Lance had been throwing his arm on Keith’s shoulders any chance he got or was always bumping their knees together while he was briefing the team on a mission. Plus with each passing tick it was starting to sink in more and more that Keith was in fact in love with Lance.

“Like what?” Lance asked with a playful huff.

“How I’m in love with you.”

Oh shit, that’s not what he wanted to say.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” Keith said in an even tone as he watched Lance’s face turn the same color as a tomato.

“Keith, what-what the-“ Lance sputtered until Keith cut him off.

“Wait, let me try that again,” Keith said, not waiting for Lance’s answer because he needed to do this right, not just casually spit it out without any warning. “Lance, you mean so much to me, like it’s to the point I can’t really imagine you not being a part of my life-“

“Oh my god Keith, be quiet for a minute,” Lance said as he scrambled his way across the couch so that he was right by Keith and resting his hands on the side of Keith’s face.   
“Did you-did you just say that you love me?”

“Uh yeah, that’s what I’m trying to say but in a more-“

“Oh my god let me finish,” Lance cried, squishing Keith’s cheeks. “And by love you mean in like you’re in love with me romantically?”

“Yeah that’s what I was trying to get at-“ 

“Keith, oh my god I don’t need you to wax and entire novel about how you’re in love with me before even telling me,” Lance groaned as he sat back and took his hands away from Keith’s face to move them into Keith’s own. “Because I’m in love with you too.”

“Oh,” Keith said. “That’s good.”

“Yeah, it is,” Lance said with a shy smile as he rested his forehead against Keith’s. “So, what do you say to space ranger boyfriends?”

Keith chuckled as he squeezed Lance’s hands. “Of course. I’ve been waiting for this to happen for this to happen for months.”

“Same,” Lance said before leaning forward and quickly brushing his lips against Keith’s in a feather-like kiss. “You better watch out though, I’m going to have Pidge complaining about us daily.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Keith said as a large smile spread across his face as Lance leaned in again.

/////

“I still can’t get over how you just confessed to me without any buildup,” Lance said with a chuckle. “Like you just said it so casually.”

“I mean I was freaking out on the inside if it makes you feel any better,” Keith said.

“Ha, you sure didn’t act like it,” Lance said. “Meanwhile I was freaking out on both the inside and the outside.”

“Well it all worked out so I’m not complaining,” Keith said with a shrug. “Though I’m still angry you didn’t let me give my whole speech.”

“Keith, I was too busy freaking out about how you said that you were in love with me and then told me to hold on for a second when all I wanted was to know if you meant it.”

“Now it’s your turn,” Keith said as he snuggled in closer to Lance’s chance. “What story are you going to tell?”

“Another good one.”

////

They didn’t go on their first “official” date until after they had found Shiro, again. Before that they did always find time to spend together, but it was almost like what they used to do before they got together, just with the added benefit of hand holding and kissing.

After they had managed to pull Shiro out from the void they took a few days off to figure out the team line up and give Shiro time to recover. It was just pure luck they had been by the space mall. But Lance took the opportunity and asked Keith out on a real date

“What’s your plan exactly?” Keith asked after they had been walking around the shops for a bit.

Lance looked over at his boyfriend (quiznak he still got all giddy whenever he thought of that) and their intertwined hands and had to try hard to not say that he just really wanted to hold Keith’s hand without listening to any of their friends’ comments.

“Nothing really,” Lance said as he swung their hands between them. “Whatever we want I guess. I just wanna spend some time with you without worrying about someone walking in and it becoming a group bonding thing.”

“Well I like the sound of that,” Keith said with a smile before catching some booth selling knives and dragging Lance over.

Lance got to listen to the extensive history of some kind of alien blade while Keith got all starry eyed, and that alone was enough to make it the best date in Lance’s opinion.

They looked in a few other shops they had seen last time they had visited but spent more time sneaking glances at each other before realizing they didn’t need to do that anymore.

When they passed by the food court a brilliant idea came to Lance’s mind. He paused outside the opening to the court and looked over at Keith with a sly smile on his face.

“What are you about to do?” Keith asked with a smile that was probably a little too fond considering his boyfriend had just come up with a plan that would no doubt get them kicked out.

“Keith, my main man,” Lance said he snaked his arm around Keith’s waist and throwing his other arm out towards the food court. “I have a proposition.”

“Oh?” Keith said as a similar grin appeared on his face.

“I think I can manage to snatch more free samples than you,” Lance said pressing a finger to Keith’s chest. “Do you have any objections?”

“Hmmm I don’t know, I think I can get more,” Keith said with a smirk as poked a finger to Lance’s chest. “I mean, the Blade was all about stealth.”

"We’ll see about that,” Lance said, kissing Keith on the nose before running off to start snatching the samples. He heard Keith make some kind of strangled noise before he heard his footsteps behind him and the game was on.

They ended up getting kicked out of the food court, but not before Lance won by a grand total of two samples, Keith claimed it was because he had a quick start.

Despite having eaten about twenty free samples each they were still hungry enough to get ice cream from a cart outside the food court. Neither of them could figure out the flavors so they dared each other to get the weirdest sounding one to them.

Lances ended up being a bright magenta color that somehow had steam coming off of it but tasted like peppers and some kind of sweet fruit. Keith’s had been a swamp color green with weird bubbles coming off of it, according to him it tasted like tomato, just straight up tomato.

“This was nice,” Keith said as they headed back to the ship they had flown in. “We should definitely do this more often.”

“Oh don’t you worry babe, once this war is over and we’re back on Earth you better be prepared to be wooed and for me to date the heck out of you,” Lance said as he pressed a kiss to Keith’s temple, silently noting how it made Keith press close to his side.

“Well then we better hurry up and take the Galra Empire down,” Keith said, looking up at Lance with a wide smile on his face.

/////

“And look at us now,” Lance said throwing out an arm before Keith grabbed it and pulled it back to wrap around him. “You getting tired?”

Keith hummed as he rested his head on one of Lance’s arms. “Kinda.”

“You wanna tell one more story and then we pack up?” Lance asked as he watched Keith close his eyes.

“Can you tell the story?” Keith murmured, and honestly how could Lance say no to that.

“Okay, one more story, the most action packed and blood boiling one yet!”

/////

The entire universe was on fire; well not really it just felt that way as the battle raged on. It’s almost ironic how the final showdown is happening on the ruins of what was once the Galra’s home planet. The battle was raging on two fronts, below on the planet and above them. Lance had started the battle in space, but now it seemed he would end in on the ground.

Allura was facing off against Haggar, the last link of power within the Galra Empire with both Zarkon and Lotor cold as death. Everyone else was spread out, Shiro, Pidge and Hunk we’re still in space taking out the Galra ships while he and Keith had headed down to the planet to help the rebel forces take down the slowly dwindling Galra numbers.

The two were currently back to back, Lance was cycling between his sword and rifle as needed while Keith help both his bayard and his knife. Lance could smell the smoke and blood choking up the air.

“How you holding up babe?” Lane asked over the roar of the battlefield as he sliced down another Galra drone. Haggar’s entire army was only running on her magic, once she was dead this battle would be over with her pawns dropping to the ground.

“It could be better!” Keith yelled back as Lance quickly switched his bayard and shot a drone heading towards Keith.

“Thanks for that,” Keith said before slashing down another drone.

Not to get pushy or anything but how much longer was it going to be before Allura took out this witch. Supposedly Haggar was weak from using so much of her power to control this army so she should be an easy hit. Though the witch was notoriously good at playing cat and mouse, but Allura could do this, he believed in her. However he was getting tired of cutting through metal and breastplates.

Just as Lance was beginning to feel the heat of battle intensify, suddenly it all went quiet and seconds later all the Galra troops fell over like dominos.

Lance stood for a good minute speechless until Keith was wrapping his arms around him and whispering into his ear, “It’s over, it’s over, thank god it’s over.”

Lance wrapped his arms around Keith and squeezed him hard, pressing a kiss onto the crown of his head before lifting up Keith’s chin and kissing him on the lips.

This kiss was slow and sweet, they knew they had plenty of time now.

/////

“Now wasn’t that a happy ending?” Lance teased as he watched Keith gaze up at him sleepily.

“Mmm, I don’t think the story is anywhere close to done,” Keith said with a lopsided smile as he reached up and pulled Lance down into a quick kiss, whispering against his lips, “I think it’s only the beginning.”


End file.
